Last night after getting in from an affair I smelled a funny odor in the house. At first it was faint and I didn’t pay much attention to it. But as the night wore on…nearly an hour or so later…the smell became more and more evident to me.

Finally, I got up and started sniffing around. It is funny how much like animals we are. But that is what I did. I started sniffing and began discounting area after area. But the smell was growing.

I started thinking about the possibility of a fire being inside the walls. We have all heard those stories. How for nearly a week the family smelled something and didn’t know what it was.

Besides, I had recently had to unplug my diesel truck when I had smelled something upon awakening in the middle of the night…something that very much smelled to me like fresh popped pop corn. It wasn’t fresh popped pop corn…but turned out to be the outlet that I had plugged my truck’s extension cord into. More to be exact it was one of those multi-plug things we all use for our computers and everything else that we have to plug in. But the extension cord running from inside the house to truck is constantly on…and I guess the outlet just couldn’t take it.

Upon sniffing…I found out I didn’t have a pop corn problem but an electrical outlet problem. Which I quickly solved by unplugging the cord and cutting off the multi-outlet. But because I have seen so many Christmas news stories about electrical outlets and Christmas trees…and of course those electrical extension cords causing fires…that I didn’t hestitate to unplug the whole thing for good.

When I smelled what I smelled this time…I immediately began to assume that maybe I hadn’t solve that problem at all.

I thought that maybe even though I had unplugged the truck and killed the outlet switch…that perhaps it had caused a fire to start in the inside of my parents house’s wall. So, I sniffed and I sniffed but when I went near the area of the shut-off multi-plug outlet there was nothing. Now, Sherlock really had to go to work because the smell was getting stronger…and I felt an urgent need to find it.

While I was sitting in a certain area of the dinning room the smell seemed it’s strongest. But there was nothing there. And when I sniffed the area…I could smell nothing outside of a whiff of the smell.

That is when I decided I better go check downstairs in the basement.

When I opened the door leading towards the back hallway of my parent’s house the smell suddenly grew stronger. Now, I knew…I was on the right track.

As I started down the basement stairs, I felt heat like I had never felt before from down there. In fact, I was hit with like a wall of heat. Immediately I headed for the furnace. And the furnace it was.

It was all lit up…bustling red hot…it was as I had never seen it before. The coils running out at the bottom of furnace were red hot…and this was something that never was before.

I tried to look and see if the furnace was out of water. And as far I could tell it was.

So, I reached up and took the knob to the water pipe and began to release water down into the furnace. But the furnace response to water was violent. It started making all kinds of weird noises. I feared that the furnace was going to blow up. Which is exactly what I thought upon seeing how red hot all the elements on it were. It looked like it was going to explode.

So, I quickly turned off the water upon hearing its reaction to the water being released into it. And I ran up the stairs. Well…I tried to get up the stairs as quickly as I could. I went directly to the thermostat to the furnace, and I turned it all the way off. I hoped that this was going keep the furnace from blowing up my parent’s house…which upon looking at that furnace that was exactly what I thought would happen. I definitely felt that the furance was well on its way to exploding.

We have all read stories about furnaces blowing up…leveling the houseand killing everybody inside. That is just what I envisioned.

All I could think about was my parent’s house…and how it had no insurance on it. If it were to blow up…where would I go?

What would I do?

Where…what..how could I…

Not to mention…I would have been the cause of blowing up my parent’s house….something that they had work hard for…and made all kinds of sacrifices for.

When I awoke this morning the house wasn’t as cold as I thought that it would be. It hadn’t blown up. But I knew I had to call the furnace people. Because I was not going to dare turn it back on without calling someone to come and check it out first.

I was so happy that the house hadn’t gotten leveled to the ground…and that God once again had stepped in on my behalf. And He did…as always.

So, a few minutes ago the furnace guys came and ran water into the now very cold furnace. And after a while the water ran out of furnace onto the ground of our basement…which was the thing what they were looking to see if it would happen.

They then informed me of what they knew I really didn’t want to hear. They told me that I should not have turned on the cold water but rather I should have turned off the furnace and then allowed it to cool all the way down first. This is message to those of you reading this as to how not to end up costing yourself an additional $4,000 to $5,000 bill by having to replace your furnace.

Yes, that is what I have to do.

I must pay to have a whole new furnace put in because I reacted without thinking before turning on that cold water. This was something we have all learned in our grade school science class…but who remembers this stuff when thrown into a situation many years later?

Though I must say…I am not sure that I may not have turned on that water anyway. Sometimes we all learn best…when we end up having to pay for it.

This is a lesson I have now learned…and learned it the hard way (much like that other story I told you in a prior blog when I stuck a fork into an electric toaster while the toaster was on…you’ve have got to read that blog). But I have now well learned this lesson too. And I am not subject to ever forget it again.

My parents used to take us to Florida during the summer to spend some time with our grandmother. Once, while driving to Florida many years ago when we were still kids. I had just started driving at this paricular time. On road down to Florida, our car overheated. I clearly remember now…how we sat along side the road waiting on the radiator to cool down before daddy poured some water into it. I also now remember him risking burning his hand to take the cap off the radiator so the heat that had built up inside the radiator could escape.

None of that came to me last night.

Daddy was sure something. He really was.

Somehow, I appreciate him and all the things he did and could do a lot more now than ever before. And it grieves me to say that…because I certainly didn’t appreciate him as much as I should have when we had him with us.

Daddy did burn his hand. But after a while we were soon back on our way. And everytime we stopped…daddy got out and kept checking the radiator from that point down and all the way back home. And he never complained about his hand.

I am so happy I didn’t blow up my parent’s house.

Who cares about that furnace….that can easily be replaced. Yes, it will take me some time. And yes…I may not have any hot water either for a while. But at least I still have roof over my head.

Let us all pray for the homeless and those facing foreclosure…and those who’s problems are not so easily fixed.

Early this morning I had the chance to meet Nikki Giovanni…and I took it. I cut my History class and found my way down to the auditorium where she was speaking. She was all of what I expected and much more. But while there I ran into an old friend.

This old friend was a woman whom I have known from the days when my parents used to pack us up and send us off for 2 weeks to camp. She was then one of the little campers…just like me. But she told me how her daughter had died instantly in car crash on her way to the airport. Then she commenced to tell how her sister, Darlene, has just passed. Darlene had been a little camper with us…she was just a couple years older than her sister telling me the story. She also told me how Darlene prior to dying had been in intensive care for 2 months. And then she told me how she had also just buried an uncle.

She ended it all by glancing over at me with a pair of the saddest eyes and saying, “This has been a very bad year for me.”

When you think that times are bad…or that you have it hard. Just keep this in mind. That there is always someone going through something worst.

Enjoy your weekend…and be bless.

Before closing let me thank each of every one of you for reading these blogs. About a week ago my stats for these blogs were barely over a 1,000 hits. But that isn’t bad considering I had only gotten started blogging back in June of this year…and who ever thought I would be blogging. I didn’t even know what blogging was…much less how to do or that I cared to do it at all. But within a weeks time from last week I have neared almost 4,000…and that is because of you. By some time Wednesday it may be 5,000 if not more.

When I started I wondered about how people would find my blog?

There were times when only one or two people read them…but now…it is over 200 hits per day.

I think that is wonderful. I certainly would not have thought anything like that.

Who could be interested in reading anything I have say…on anything?

I just hope that I am saying something that makes sense to you, that may inspire you…or even give you reason to pause and consider some things. But most of all I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share with you…and be able from time to time to tell you just how good God is to me.

Thank you so very much.

I found this picture and loved the colors so much I just could not resist including it along with this blog…it is simply called “The Wedding”…